Chuck Gets Full Season Order

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As the strike continues, NBC orders more Chuck and Life.

By Eric Goldman

The Nerd Herd has a reason to celebrate! NBC is following in the footsteps of ABC -- who picked up Dirty Sexy Money for more episodes last week -- and giving full season orders to two new series, despite the fact that the Writers Guild strike is still underway. The lucky recipients of these orders are Chuck and Life, reveals TV Guide's Michael Ausiello.

As Ausiello notes, Chuck has been able to carve out a niche in a tough Monday night timeslot, and Life meanwhile has found an audience of its own, recently building on lead-in Bionic Woman in the 18-49 year old demographic for the first time. There is no word yet on pick ups for NBC's two other new series, Bionic Woman and Journeyman. With fairly low ratings for both (Bionic in particular has fallen since its strong debut) neither have as strong a chance as Chuck or Life of continuing past their initial orders or going back into production if the strike ends soon.

The full season orders and the sign of support from the network for Chuck and Life meanwhile likely hints that if the strike ends up going for a long time, and no more episodes are produced this season, those two shows at least have a much better shot at returning next fall.